Chip Griffin: Pardon the Disruption

The Reality of Zuckerberg-Lacy at SxSW

I finally got a chance to watch video of the Mark Zuckerberg Q&A style keynote from SxSW. His interviewer, Sarah Lacy of BusinessWeek, has been almost uniformly excoriated for her performance. We are led to believe that the audience turned on her quickly, ridiculing her on Twitter, walking out of the keynote, and heckling from their chairs.

The Firestorm of Criticism

Candidly, I didn’t think it was even half as bad as a number of well-respected bloggers and commentators seem to believe. (Not surprisingly, Jeff Jarvis offers one of the most well-considered critiques.) The most common criticisms about Lacy seem to have been that she interrupted too much, focused attention on herself, acted too “flirty,” and didn’t ask questions of interest to the audience (specifically she focused on business more than technical aspects of Facebook).

The Reality as I Watched It

Lacy’s interruptions frequently added value to the interview. Zuckerberg was meandering his way through a story about Colombian guerilla fighters when she interjected a question about whether he ever thought Facebook would be used for that when he created the company. It was a good effort to get him back on track. Many saw it as an attempt for her to step on his story, but I saw it as her attempt to fill her role of keeping the Q&A lively and interesting.

Remember that the reason why someone like Zuckerberg gives a keynote in Q&A format is because he isn’t comfortable giving a solo speech. The interactivity is designed to overcome the deficiencies that he likely recognizes in himself. Perhaps she was a bit too conversational at times, but it appeared to me that she was trying to loosen him up and get him to forget the audience in front of him.

She did err in making the announcement of a French language version of Facebook rather than bringing it out in a question. That’s an easy mistake to make since the two had spoken prior to the keynote in an attempt to figure out what the discussion would focus on. Should she have been more careful? Of course.
Was it a mortal sin? Hardly.

As to the mix of questions, it seemed like she took a reasonable approach to the discussion. Sure, the audience was full of creative types, but the business philosophy behind a company as important (at least as of today) as Facebook should be of interest. Designers and developers who ignore the business realities do so at their own risk.

At no point did I sense that Zuckerberg seemed uncomfortable with Lacy’s interview style. He seemed relatively relaxed, at least as compared to his reputation. The few occasions where he seemed to “give it” to Lacy, it struck me more as an attempt on his part to be flippant and conversational himself, rather than an effort to express outrage or discontent.

I should also note that the audience did not seem as agitated as the coverage led me to believe. There were occasional shouts from the crowd, but nothing that would overtly signal to the people on the stage that the audience was extremely restless and discontented. That suggests either the outrage has been exaggerated or the crowd controlled its animosity well.

The Disconnect With Reality

Throughout, Lacy seemed respectful of Zuckerberg and Facebook, something that I didn’t sense from the Twitter and blog coverage. She was aware of the hostility from the audience over Beacon and attempted to get Zuckerberg to discuss it and have the crowd listen before they reacted.

For others defending Lacy, check out Mike Arrington and Brian Solis.

Beware the Mob

This is simply the latest incident where the social media mob rushed to judgment and sucked many of us in along the way. Until I finally had a chance to watch the video, I was left with the impression that the Q&A had, in fact, been an utter disaster. Fortunately, social media brought us the video to dispel that notion.

The best and worst thing about the blogosphere and Twittersphere is that everyone is empowered to share an opinion. The more vigorous (or perhaps vicious) the opinion, the more likely it is to get noticed.

As a community, we must all be careful not to rush to join the mob -- or believe everything it says. Further, there is a clear need for balance and reason in order to encourage more of the mainstream media, major brands, and average Internet users to join the conversation.

(By the way, kudos to Nick O'Neill for getting the complete video online so those of us not at SxSW could see the reality.)

Preview from StartRocket: WebInno 13 Side Dishes

As I have mentioned in this space previously, I will be launching a new media site called StartRocket on August 1.  It will feature text, audio, and video coverage of high-tech entrepreneurship -- especially East of the Rockies.

One of the great events taking place on the East Coast are the Web Innovators Group meetings run by David Beisel of Venrock.  Typically, 3 companies get to be the "main dishes" and present demos of their products to several hundred people.  In addition, 6 "side dishes" get to have tables and briefly describe for the audience what they're all about.

StartRocket will feature coverage of these events, among many others.  Earlier this week, WebInno 13 took place and most of that coverage will appear after StartRocket's launch.  But to give you a taste of what is to come, I produced a brief video that highlights the side dishes, as well as David's introduction at the event.

The companies mentioned on this video are: iZync, TeachAde, NextCat, CurbsideMD, and Frevvo.

Technorati Tags: David Beisel, Venrock, StartRocket, WebInno, WebInno13, TeachAde, NextCat, Praxeon, CurbsideMD, Frevvo, Zync, Wade Dyke, Jeff Pucci, Dennis Underwood, Ashish Deshpande, Brad Rosen, video

Heading to WebInno Tonight

Tonight I will be in Cambridge, MA at WebInno 13, the great get together for startups, entrepreneurs, investors, and the tech-fascinated organized by David Beisel.  Looks like there are nearly 400 people planning to attend -- amazing!

I like coming to these events to get to see what's going on and catch up with like-minded people.  But tonight I'm also attending as part of my efforts to set up StartRocket, my new media site focused on web entrepreneurship, especially east of the Rockies.

I'll be recording video of the demos and looking to connect with interesting people to interview for the site.  I'll be scouting companies to profile.  And, of course, I'll be looking to spread the word about StartRocket itself.

If you're in the Boston area, come on by.  It should be a great evening. 

Technorati Tags: David Beisel, StartRocket, Web Innovators Group, WebInno, entrepreneur, startup, venture capital, angel investing

PR Pros Enthusiastic About Social Media

PRSA's Technology Section and its New York Chapter put on a great event in NYC yesterday at the T3 Conference.  I spoke on a panel moderated by Don Bates accompanied by David Parmet of Marketing Begins at Home and Tony Sapienza of Topaz Partners.  Tony gave on overview of the tools in social media relevant to PR pros, including wikis, podcasts, blogs, social networks, and more.  David discussed SNCR's best practices for corporate blogging.  And I talked about 7 sins in 7 minutes.

What struck me most was the sea change that has occurred since last year's event by the same sponsors.  A significant percentage of people in the audience are now writing blogs and virtually all read them regularly.  That's a far cry from the last one where "what's a blog?" was a common question.

It was a great opportunity to meet new people and also catch up with some old faces.  For instance, I finally met Constantin Basturea in person and saw Steve Rubel for the first time in many months.  Speaking of those two, they were on a lively panel discussing the future of PR moderated by Richard Laermer.

(Photo of me here taken by David Parmet with his Nikon D80.  Check out more of his photos from the event on Flickr.)

Technorati tags: PRSA, public relations, T3, David Parmet, Tony Sapienza, Constantin Basturea, Steve Rubel, Topaz Partners, Marketing Begins at Home, Nikon D80, Don Bates, Richard Laermer

The Future of Conferences and Professional Associations

This probably deserves two posts, but I think the matters are related, so I'm lumping them together.  I found myself writing this after being asked by one of our team members at CustomScoop whether I thought a professional development conference was worth more than $2000 to attend.  Half of that was the conference fee and the other half travel-related expenses.  It, of course, did not include the value of that person's time since that would need to be factored in as well to make an accurate value judgment.

But two posts I read in the last couple of days entered into the mix as well.  The first was from my new friend John Wall (how long is a friend new, by the way?  in social media circles it seems like the timeline for everything is shortened!).  He wrote:

My membership to the Boston chapter of the Business Marketing Association is coming up for renewal. As I look back over the year, the only thing I got out of my membership is the certificate that’s under a pile of stuff somewhere in the pile of stuff that builds up with the trade mags in a random corner. Of course that still puts them one step ahead of my membership to the New England Direct Marketing Association (NEDMA), I don’t recall getting a certificate from them.

Another point of reference came from a Microsoft employee named Kintan Brahmbhatt.  He asked, "Why do you go to a conference?" and offered up a good post on the subject.  I find fewer and fewer people seem to attend conferences for the content, but more for the networking.  Kintan says something similar: "the common and the highest order bit for me to attend any conference has always been and will always be 'to meet new people', with similar or different interests."

With the rise of "unconferences" like the wildly successful Podcamp (over 1000 attendees in New York recently) and parties like the TechCrunch/August Capital one coming up or the mixers that Rafat Ali puts on for PaidContent, how necessary are conferences and associations? 

Conferences

I still pay substantial dollars to go to some conferences.  I pay over $2000 a pop to attend each of the two annual DEMO events put on by Chris Shipley.  It's a mix of the technology demos and the people that brings me there.  It is a real time to recharge my batteries by seeing great innovation and talking with fellow entrepreneurs and investors that I don't see often (as well as meeting new ones).  But I'm still undecided on whether to spring a similar amount for Michael Arrington and Jason Calacanis' TechCrunch 20.  I'm inclined to for many of the same reasons as DEMO, but how often can I shell out that sort of cash and feel justified in doing so?  Why not just read TechCrunch and Scoble to get my scoops and Twitter for networking?

Similarly, I will generally pay to attend major communications industry events like the PRSA or IABC annual conferences.  They're not quite as expensive as DEMO or TechCrunch 20, but they're still not cheap.  And with so much live blogging and official video now available, is the networking really worth it?  If so, how often?

What I'd really like to see is someone to take the best of these expensive, established conferences and blend in some of the elements of an unconference to make it a more affordable event to attend with more potent content.  I think it can be done.  Unconferences scare more mainstream attendees because most people fear the unknown.  So have an agenda, but offer up a track with some flexibility for those who are open to the concept.  Choose venues that may not be quite as grand, but that perhaps offer more affordable conference fees.  Find a way to integrate vendors in a transparent way that allows benefits to be shared by attendee and sponsors alike.

Professional Associations

This is one that's a much tougher nut to crack.  I belong to a number of associations, including PRSA and IABC.  I have been active with the PRSA New York board for a number of years now and have seen first-hand the challenges that associations face today.  It's much harder to entice younger people to shell out membership fees and employers are less inclined to foot the bill themselves.

When you're paying hundreds of dollars a year in membership dues, you expect something in return.  But what is the biggest value that most of these groups offer?  Newsletters and events.  The newsletters are free, though they offer far less value today in an age of blogs and other instant (and free) communication.  Often the events are good (PRSA chapters put on some great events, and not just the ones that I participate in!).  But the discounts provided to members are often fairly paltry (it seems like $10 to $25 less is fairly typical of the ones I see that aren't $1000 events).  It takes a lot of those discounts in a year to make up for the dues investment.

The bottom line is professional associations must do more to innovate and adapt to the changing environment we all operate in.  Newsletters and magazines that once served as a lifeline to professionals no longer fill the same need as they did in the pre-Internet era when niche news, information, and commentary was harder to find.  Local events that once offered a glimpse into the mind of an expert now need more to distinguish themselves.  The content isn't what drives me to go listen to Katie Paine.  I can get that from her newsletter, blog, and live blogging accounts of her conference appearances (and there's probably video, too, that I'm overlooking).  It's the conversation and networking.  So tailor events to maximize those benefits.

Conclusion

The landscape is changing for conferences and professional associations.  The old ways of doing things are dead.  The venerable COMDEX conference lost its place at the top of the computer industry heap because it no longer served a burning need in the community.  Others will face the same fate if they fail to innovate and adapt

Technorati tags: conferences, associations, professional associations, DEMO, TechCrunch20, TechCrunch, Michael Arrington, Jason Calacanis, PRSA, IABC, Katie Paine, Podcamp, Chris Brogan, unconference, Robert Scoble, COMDEX, Chris Shipley, live blogging, John Wall, Kintan Brahmbhatt

Recapping Reboot

Didn't make it to Reboot?  Neither did I.  But Sarah Wurrey, editor of PR Blog Jots and frequent contributor to the CustomScoop blog, just posted a nice summary of the discussion that went on in the blogosphere about the conference.  It's not as much fun as being in Copenhagen and enjoying some of the local spirit and spirits, but it's a good wrap-up anyway.  Check it out and feel free to add links to anything she might have overlooked!

Technorati tags: Reboot9, conferences, Sarah Wurrey, CustomScoop, PR Blog Jots

T3 High-Tech PR Conference in NYC

The T3 High-Tech PR Conference will be held in New York on June 19.  It's an event being organized by the PRSA Technology Section and the PRSA New York Chapter.  They did one of these about 18 months ago and it was well-attended and very informative.

I'm speaking on a panel called "Blogs, Vlogs & iPods: Best practices for implementing and leveraging social media in PR campaigns" along with Tony Sapienza of Topaz Partners.  Other participants include Richard Laermer of the Bad Pitch Blog, Constantin Basturea of Converseon, Steve Rubel of Edelman, Chris Brogan of PodCamp, and Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR and SearchEngineWatch.com.

The all day event will include discussion of viral video, blogs, podcasts, social media, pitching high-tech publications, search engine optimization, RSS, virtual worlds like Second Life, and the future of PR and technology.  It promises to be another valuable event.

You can find registration information here.  I encourage you to attend.

Technorati tags: PRSA, conferences, social media, blogging, podcasting, Second Life

Live Blogging Kicked Up a Notch with Video

Speaking of Shel Holtz, he has a great post about the next step in the live blogging revolution: live video.  This has been a topic of conversation in tech blogs this week because of the Web 2.0 expo.  I'll let Shel explain:

Over at PodTech Robert Scoble and Jeremiah Owyang took UStream for a spin at the recent Web 2.0 conference, using the live streaming capability to broadcast panel discussions and other activities. (Jeremiah wrote about it here.)

I can't recall where I saw it but there's a great if ridiculous photo of Scoble sitting next to Chris Pirillo while Chris is typing and Scoble is wearing a head-cam.  And did I mention they were on a panel at that time?  Only at a tech conference...

Though I managed to be enmeshed in the recent live blogging controversy, I suspect that I'll be able to remain on the sidelines of this discussion as I'm not sure I'm likely to become a videographer.  (Shel #1, Shel Israel, has an interesting post on the subject, especially since he was at ground zero of the debate.) 

I guess I'll just have to stick to annoying panelists and fellow attendees with keyboard clatter.

UPDATE: Jeremiah reminds me in the comments that I saw the photo on his blog.  It was from David Parmet.

Technorati tags: Shel Holtz, Shel Israel, live blogging, UStream, Robert Scoble, PodTech, live video, video streaming

Defrag Conference to Focus on Information Intelligence

So along comes an event that sounds like it's right up my alley.  Here's how organizers describe the Defrag conference:

Defrag is the first conference focused solely on the internet-based tools that transform loads of information into layers of knowledge, and accelerate the “aha” moment. Defrag is about the space that lives in between knowledge management, “social” networking, collaboration and business intelligence. Defrag is not a version number. Rather it’s a gathering place for the growing community of implementers, users, builders and thinkers that are working on the next wave of software innovation.

I first read about it earlier this week from Brian Oberkirch and I immediately put my name on the list for more info from the organizers.  Then one of those organizers, Brad Feld, wrote about the conference this afternoon and it got me noodling on the topic again.  He likes to talk about the issue in terms of "Intelligence amplification" to address the "trust/attention/relevance" challenge.

Obviously, this is an area that I focus on a lot every day, as CustomScoop's mission is to turn piles of news stories, columns, and blog posts into actionable media intelligence for clients.  As the mass of information continues to expand daily, our clients need more and better tools to monitor, analyze, and understand what's being said about their company, products, competitors, issues, etc.

Brad, Brian, and others emphasize that this conference will evolve based on public discussion of its content, so I want to do what I can to contribute to that process.

Off the top of my head, some of the topics I'd love to see this conference explore include:

• Understanding relative relevance in the social media space -- what matters and what doesn't?
• Extracting value from reader comments on blogs
• Exploring patterns of message travel in the blogopshere
• Focusing attention through niche information organization and analysis
• Blending and correlating disparate information sources -- corporate financials and news coverage, for instance
• Distilling information from fire hose to water glass to facilitate reader consumption

There's a lot of interesting activity going on in this space and there's huge room for improvement in the tools and services available to extract intelligence from information.

Hopefully as I spend more time with this and hear more about what others are suggesting, I'll be able to refine these ideas and come up with others.  Regardless, I'm enthusiastic about the potential for this event and wish the Defrag team luck in putting it together.  I plan to be there in November and expect I will extract a lot of value from it.

Technorati tags: Defrag, conferences, intelligence amplification, trust, attention, relevance, Brad Feld, Brian Oberkirch

WebInno11: Demos from Virtual Ubiquity, Cardvio, and MyDesignIn

I was going to do this great write-up about WebInno11 that took place in Cambridge, MA last night.  Unfortunately, my new friend John hit the key points I would have addressed.  And in the comments on his post, Virtual Ubiquity even addressed my biggest concern about their web-based word processor -- the challenge with offline editing.  And I give David Colletta of that company particular credit for disclosing in the comments that they lost Internet access during their presentation which underscored the need for them to develop solid offline editing capability.

So yet again today I find myself pointing to someone else's post rather than writing my own.

Technorati tags: Web Innovators Group, WebInno11, Virtual Ubiquity, Cardvio, MyDesignIn, David Beisel

A New Kind of Book Promotion

At the behest of Bryan Person, I attended a social media meetup last night in Boston in promotion of the book "The Strategy Paradox" by Michael Raynor of Deloitte Consulting.  Organized by Eli Singer out of Toronto, it offered a whole new way to promote a book.  It wasn't a typical book event where the author stands up and spouts on about (or worse, reads from) the book.  Rather the focus was on social interaction among the attendees and with the author.

Everyone in attendance got a book and was encouraged to talk with each other.  The interaction was partly about the book and partly about meeting new people or reconnecting with old friends.  But for the 30 or so people who came, there's little doubt that everyone had a thought or two about the book itself.

The author, Michael Raynor, did get up to speak about an hour into the event, but it was for only about 5 minutes.  And rather than having everyone subjected to the Q&A (which at most such events often ends up being more about the questions than the answers -- for some reason far too many attendees like to hear themselves talk), the focus was on having people approach the author for more discussion afterward.

Hopefully others will try similar events to promote their books to bloggers and podcasters.  It was a very pleasant environment to learn more about this book. 

My primary suggestion for improvement would be that organizers should do a better job of educating attendees about the book in advance.  I didn't feel I was prepared enough to do an intelligent podcast interview, so I will wait until I have read the book and am able to do a meaningful Q&A by phone instead.

I suggested to the organizers at the end of the event that in the future they consider distributing a short book summary -- something like a Cliff's notes or a Executive Book Summary style report that would help prepare the bloggers and podcasters in attendance.

Overall, though, a very successful event and certainly one that opened my eyes to this book.  I might have read it and reviewed it even without this event, but now I am much more likely to do so.

And as a bonus, I got to meet a lot of interesting people and learned a good deal.

UPDATE: Paul Gillin and Bryan Person have both posted their own views of the event.  Paul says he's going to keep it in mind when he starts promoting his own book shortly.  He also made the interesting point that a significant number of attendees were self-employed.  Bryan will also be covering this in an upcoming episode of his NewCommRoad podcast.

Technorati tags: Strategy Paradox, Michael Raynor, Eli Singer, Bryan Person, BryPer, books, Deloitte, social media, marketing, book promotion

NewCommForum Wrap-Up

The New Communications Forum was a tremendous conference.  It may rival DEMO for me as one of the best of the year simply because of the high concentration of smart people.  And, oh yeah, the speakers and panels weren't bad either.  As always, some were better than others, but a very solid lineup overall.

The Podcasting 101 seminar was probably the content highlight for me personally since I have just begun my Disruptive Dialogue podcast.  I picked up a bunch of tips, tricks, and techniques I can put to use starting with next week's edition.  In speaking with other participants in that seminar, the feeling seems universal that it was very high quality.

One of the best parts of the conference overall though was the large number of PR/marketing bloggers and podcasters.  It's good to see people who you converse with through blogs by linking and commenting.  I've had a chance to catch up with a number of them (in no particular order):

• Shel Israel - very entertaining.  You can always count on him to say something provocative.
• Josh Hallett - the man with the camera.  He seemed to be everywhere.
• Shel Holtz - good to finally meet one of the two co-hosts of the For Immediate Release podcast that CustomScoop sponsors.  I look forward to seeing him again and eventually meeting Neville.
• Chris Heuer - a fellow American University alum.  Was good to catch up with him and talk about how much the school has changed since we were there. 
• John Cass - he's just an hour or so from our offices in Concord, NH so hopefully we'll find more opportunities to meet in person
• Tom Foremski - sat next to him at lunch and had some good conversation.  Very thoughtful guy.
• David Parmet - a Yankees fan, but still a good guy so I won't hold it against him.  At least not too much.
• Adam Zand - smart and he likes to stir the pot with his questions.  He and his colleagues at Topaz Partners are podcasting and since they are also an hour's drive from our offices, hopefully will see more of him and his colleagues.
• Giovanni Rodriguez - great to put a face to the name since I read him pretty religiously and link to him regularly as well. 
• Susan Getgood - sorry we only had a chance to say a quick hello, Susan.  I'm sure we'll bump into each other at a future event, though, and can talk more.
• Joe Thornley - so I sat 3 feet from Joe but only got to talk to him through email.  Next time.
• Brian Oberkirch - really bright guy with interesting things to say.  And a wiseguy too, which those who know me will appreciate.

Probably a foolish idea to list all these bloggers I talked to since I'm sure I've forgotten a couple.  Now I understand how it feels to be up on stage at the Oscars.  OK, well maybe not quite...

Also a special thanks to Jen McClure for organizing the event.  It was great.  I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to meet her, but I hope to be more involved with the Society for New Communications Research down the road and I'm sure will meet her at some point.

Technorati tags: NewCommForum, New Communications Forum, Shel Israel, Shel Holtz, Josh Hallett, Chris Heuer, John Cass, Tom Foremski, David Parmet, Adam Zand, Giovanni Rodriguez, Susan Getgood, Joe Thornley, Brian Oberkirch, Jen McClure, SNCR, Society for New Communications Research, Disruptive Dialogue, Topaz Partners, PRobecast

NewCommForum: Closing Keynote by Shel Holtz

The idea of this presentation was to sum up the conference.  Shel wanted to put the conference in context and answer open questions that attendees might have. 

Shel wanted to know how people planned to keep on top of all of the new "channels" -- the ways in which we can communicate with various publics.

A number of people still don't understand RSS, so Shel tried to make it sound simpler.  He calls it an "attention tool."  He says companies like Microsoft are moving away from the RSS term and he thinks that will help.  Microsoft calls them "webfeeds" in IE7.

There was talk of internal communications and the importance of it.  (Shel said his heart remains in employee communications.)  Pick tools based on what will help employees be engaged.

Channel Growth.  Prior to the 1980s the last major channel development had been television, but the media available remained largely unchanged for decades until cable TV came along.  Since then, the Internet and all of the channels of communication available through it have substantially changed the environment.  Audiences have fragmented and Shel encourages companies to fragment with them.  Target the influencers important to your company.

Newspapers Will Survive.  Shel disagreed with other speakers at the conference who thought newspapers were heading toward extinction.  He believes (as I do, incidentally) that they will evolve.  He notes that there are 30,000 public notice laws in the U.S. that are satisfied with press releases largely to local papers (and that cannot be satisfied through blogs or other media).  Blogging is global not local, even though some blogs have more of a local focus.

Broad Themes.  Blogs/social media must be part of the mix, but not to the exclusion of all else.  They are merely a tool.

Company web sites still matter, but in different ways.

2007 is the year of the widget, according to Shel. 

Monitoring Social Media.  One of the challenges with social media is keeping tabs on it, but it is becoming easier and easier.  Tools used for social media need not add to the amount of time being spent working as they likely shift resources from one lesser value activity to a higher value one.

Selling Management.  An audience suggested management may resist social media activities.  Shel advises you ask your leaders "what keeps you awake at night?" and then figure out how social media can help solve the problem. Make a business case to business people.  Corporate culture may still resist, but it can be overcome.

Live Social Media.  The social media universe is massive and includes millions of people and millions of pieces of content.  You need to live social media to understand and utilize social media.  Use them in your day to day life, not just in business. 

Be Ready to Give Up Control.  Loss of control is a huge issue.  But companies don't really have control now anyway, so don't fret about it. The consumer is not in control, contrary to what a number of speakers said.  Rather, nobody has control.  To say consumers have control suggests that consumers have banded together in some sort of conspiracy or arrangement.

Content Matters.  Content is conversation.  Adam Curry predicts in 5 years 50 percent of all content on the web will be consumer generated.  For people born after 1980, 62% of the information they consume is created by someone they know personally.

The DIY World.  Barriers to entry have crumbled.  Easy to create podcasts, vidcasts, blogs.  If you have a story to tell, you can get it out.  As an example, Shel showed the following highly amusing video about problems with Apple Mac computers: 

1/10 Rule.  He talks about the fact that 10% of people fully engage with content and 1% create content.  From the Citizen Marketers book.

Transparency.  Gaming social media will get you in hot water.  Fake blogs, identities, etc. are a huge mistake.

Engagement.  Handling critical comments on company blogs can be a tricky issue.  Each company needs to figure out how to handle ... respond individually or respond in a subsequent post.  Being part of the conversation is key.  The more open, candid and transparent you are, the better the outcome is likely to be.  It will take steam away from critics.   Moderating comments will take time.

It's About Strategy. Don't blog, podcast, vidcast, or otherwise engage in social media just for the sake of doing so.  They are tools.  They need to be part of a plan to be effective.

Where do you think you'll be in 5 years?  Ironically, Shel closed the session with this question for the audience.  I say it is ironic because he said not 48 hours ago that he's not dumb enough to answer questions like that because he can't predict the future. 

Technorati tags: NewCommForum, New Communications Forum, Shel Holtz

NewCommForum: Managing Crisis Communications in the Blogosphere

Dave Parmet chaired a panel with Brian Oberkirch, Joel Richman and Josh Hallett covering how to manage crises in the blogsphere.  This is a subject I have spent a lot of time thinking and writing about (see "PR Crises Occur at Broadband Speeds") so I found it very useful.

This panel began with a discussion of the Great PubSub Blow-up, which two of the panelists had been consulting for at the time.  Long story short, there was a falling out between the two co-founders of PubSub that resulted in Bob Wyman airing the dirty laundry of the company.  Obviously a major crisis.

The point is that a single blog post can cause major ramifications for a business.

The panel advises communicators to take a few hours to cool down after an inflammatory blog post.  Don't respond in anger.  Don't let one obnoxious blogger take you off message.  Monitor what's being said, but use your judgment as a communicator as to when to respond.

Brian emphasized that people need information in a crisis.  Josh says know which bloggers are interested in your company so you are ready to go to them in a crisis.

The time to deal with a crisis is before it mushrooms, Brian argues.  Learn from what you're hearing in the blogs.

Josh emphasizes the value of jumping into comments early to correct factual inaccuracies in order to help stem the tide of criticism in the comments.

Discussion turned to the Taco Bell/KFC rats debacle and of course JetBlue.

And Brian spent time talking about Katrina and his blogging effort in the wake of that hurricane (Brian lives in Slidell, LA just across the lake from New Orleans).  He was able to use the blog to get information about the community for everyone who was displaced.  Since the local newspaper was unable to publish in the wake of the storm, it effectively became the local news source for everyone.

Brian said look not just to blogging, but also SMS or other communications tools in a crisis, especially when some lines of communication may be disabled.  And he made the obligatory (these days) reference to Twitter.

It is simple and cheap to create a blog if needed in a crisis but you should have it in place before.  RSS is important.  Integrating information on organization home page is key to sharing info in a crisis.  Try to use tags and keywords to help your information be found.  Monitor like heck.  And be prepared with information and plans in advance.

"The crisis starts way before the crisis starts" - great line from Brian.

Joel argues that there are times where moderated comments make sense. 

A very interesting and valuable discussion.  Nice job by all involved, but special kudos to Brian who really drove home several key points in a very clear manner.

UPDATE: I should have just waited a few minutes to post and I could have included the link to Joe Thornley's summary in my original post (he was sitting 2 seats down from me, but I got tied up so still have yet to be able to say hello in person).

Technorati tags: NewCommForum, New Communications Forum, Dave Parmet, Brian Oberkirch, Joel Richman, Josh Hallett, crisis communications, blog monitoring, PubSub

NewCommForum: Guide to Online Video with Brooks Gibbins

Brooks Gibbins of The NewsMarket had the unenviable task of capturing the interest of conference attendees after they all had a free evening in Las Vegas.   As a multimedia session, it promised to do so. 

Unfortunately, Brooks began with a company pitch, rather than jumping right into the topic.  I simply don't understand this instinct on the part of conference presenters -- you get juice from being on stage as it is, and if you want to put up a simple promo slide after you're done speaking, fine, but we don't need the full rundown of your services and the typical "logo slide" of your clients." That's not what we're here for.  So twenty-five minutes after the scheduled start of the session, we finally got to the substance. (I don't mean to be overly hard on Brooks, this is a common problem at conferences, but it really does a disservice to the attendees, the conference, and even the presenter's company.)

The talk began with the power of online video and a number of examples of how it has been done previously.  He emphasized that you must be able to deliver your content 24/7 and in multiple media formats.  First consumers came to online video, then traditional media followed, and advertisers are now getting engaged.

24.9B videos were streamed in 2006.  News made up the largest segment of these videos.  Twice as many consumers say they go online to watch news videos as say they go to look for user generated videos. 

Brooks believes that user-generated video (including material produced by companies) represents "the biggest shift in a communications medium since the inception of the web." 

He notes that online video demands that communicators must market and marketers must communicate.

Brooks then went into a number of examples of how companies are effectively using online video. 

Three things Brooks suggests you should do this year:

1. integrate video on your web site
2. enable embedding of video on other sites (blogs, media, etc.)
3. make raw file available for broadcast outlets

Unfortunately, the action items portion of the presentation got rushed through due to time constraints.  It's unfortunate because I think there were some good suggestions included. 

Ironically, while I was listening to this presentation, I noticed in my feed reader that Jeremy Pepper has a lengthy post on online video.  Definitely a good companion to this session.

Technorati tags: NewCommForum, New Communications Forum, online video, newsmarket, Brooks Gibbins, Jeremy Pepper

NewCommForum: The Social Media Press Release

Chris Heuer hosted this panel with Todd Defren, Tom Foremski, Brian Solis, Laura Sturaitis, and George Vazquez.

Ah, the social media press release.  A topic of controversy finally emerges at the conference!

• Brian believes the format requires people to dissect the traditional release and remove all the BS
• Laura describes it as a "foundation document" not meant to do all things for all people
• Tom, of course, is famous for declaring the press release dead.  So he is passionate in calling for change.
• Todd thinks change is necessary to this critical tool and the SMPR is a good solution (he is one of the chief evangelists for the format)
• There is an SEO benefit to the SMPR
• Tom questions the value of PR wire services
• Chris says smaller or startup companies don't engage in official PR and prefer direct communication through blogs and such
• George says you need to use a PR wire service to meet disclosure requirements and to allow more people to see your message
• Brian says it is OK to use one release for the wires and an SMPR for bloggers
• Tom thinks disclosure requirements can be satisfied without wire service distribution.  Not surprisingly, Laura disagreed and warned people need to understand this is a legal issue and is very complex and that they should still use wires. 
• Chris mentioned the case of Emulex where a fake press release went out on the wires and caused major stock damage.
• A member of the audience questioned whether there is a case study to show how a social media press release was more successful than a traditional one.  Todd mentioned that one of his clients is Novell and on one day they put out 10 press releases, one in SMPR format.  He said it was the least newsworthy, but it got the most pickup by far.

Technorati tags: NewCommForum, New Communications Forum, Chris Heuer, Todd Defren, Tom Foremski, Brian Solis, Laura Sturaitis, George Vazquez, BusinessWire, PRNewswire, social media press release, press release

NewCommForum: Best Practices for Corporate Blogging & Social Media

This one promises to be a lively panel discussion with Mike Manuel moderating.  Panelists are John Cass, Shel Israel, Giovanni Rodriguez, Debbie Weil, and Josh Hallett.

• Don't do blogging half-way.  Make sure you get your own domain name and think out what your blog is going to be.
• Corporate IT often has trouble doing blogging platforms right.  Keep IT away from it.
• It's hard to claim best practices since that really means "tried and true" and blogs and other social media are too new for that.
• Shel says take risks.  Stick your neck out, yank someone's chain.  Don't do something stupid, but don't be boring.  Taking risks humanizes a company.  Don't allow your company to be a faceless monolith.
• Debbie says "confront your fear" over loss of control or being criticized.  Embrace experimentation.
• Giovanni thinks we may have been blinded by the term "conversation." 
• Digital video is coming on strong, but blogging is still preeminent and was first.
• Crisis communications can be used to sell blogging to senior execs.
• Lawyers and IT resist change but decision about blogging should be a customer relationship one.
• Shel doesn't believe you should try to quantify things that are unquantifiable.  He gives the example of counting the number of impressions of a New York Times story.  He says if it is 3 inches below the fold on page 37, it was probably only about 14 people who read it (not the millions of subscribers) and most of them probably got distracted at paragraph 2 and never finished it.
• Shel says he completely disagrees with Charlene Li's study on the ROI of blogging.
• Shel believes people overlook intangibles too much. 

This may have been the most entertaining panel so far.  The high concentration of bloggers on the panel as well as in the first few rows of the audience ensured a healthy back and forth.  Shel Israel seemed to be the popular target, but he endured the barbs well.  (And as usual he gave as good as he got.)

UPDATE: Brian Oberkirch, when he wasn't recording podcast interviews, wrote up a nice summary as well.  (FYI - you can see the back of his head in the photo above.)

Technorati tags: NewCommForum, New Communications Forum, Mike Manuel, John Cass, Shel Israel, Giovanni Rodriguez, Debbie Weil, Josh Hallett, social media, corporate blogging, best practices, PR, Charlene Li, ROI, blogging

NewCommForum: How to Measure CGM with Katie Paine

Always good to see a fellow NH CEO at a conference (especially one in the media intelligence field), so I'm looking forward to this presentation on measuring consumer generated media from Katie Paine.  She's an acknowledged expert in the measurement field and usually has provocative things to say.

Katie wants the term "measurement" to disappear.  She prefers to think of it as "data-driven decision-making."

She opened with size doesn't matter (eyeballs/page views in other words) and ROI doesn't mean what you think it does.  She emphasized that hitting the right eyeballs is more important than hitting a lot of them.

Her advice? Match the measurement tool to your objective and understand that it will all change tomorrow.  Be prepared to deal with that.

Figure out what your goals are and measure Output, Outtake, and Outcome metrics. 

• Output = what you do
• Outtake = what your audience hears, takes away
• Outcome = results (conversions, sales, etc.)

"You become what you measure."  If you track the wrong things, your outcomes will be wrong.

You need to define goals, audience, and the benefits you want to achieve from social media.  Then set the criteria for success.

She advises using the right tracking tool based on what your company needs.  For instance, if you don't get much social media coverage, you should stick with the free tools.  If you have more coverage, it may be worth using another service (she specifically mentioned CyberAlert, eWatch, and my own CustomScoop -- thanks Katie!).

She thinks automated content analysis is OK, but it isn't perfect. She advocates a hybrid solution based on technology and human analysis combined.

Don't collect data if you're not going to use it.

She also talked about the challenge of tracking comments on blogs.  Then she did a demo of her DIY Dashboard product and took questions from the audience.

UPDATE: Joseph Thornley has an excellent summary of this panel as well.

Technorati tags: NewCommForum, New Communications Forum, Katie Paine

NewCommForum: The Winners and Sinners of Social Media

The lunch "keynote" was a panel with Steve Crescenzo and David Strom. 

Steve started out talking primarily about internal communications.  He focused on the how internal communicators should use social media.  His top point was that executives shouldn't blog in many cases.  Unless the exec is comfortable with the medium, they should steer clear.  Steve also focused on the need for communicators to coach others within their companies about best practices.

McDonald's went down as a winner and a sinner for Steve.  Internally he thinks they are doing well, but externally he has concerns.

Control once again popped up as an executive concern for many companies, with both David and Steve joining in on this.

David thought JetBlue was a sinner, though it was more focused on operational failures than social media mistakes.  The audience was invited to comment, and John Cass expressed his view that they succeeded in getting their message out.  He cited a case on Boston TV news where JetBlue was praised for doing something about the issue when the anchor was reporting on another airline with a problem.

Shel Israel praised the company for joining the conversation.  Social media is just a tool, Shel said, the real story here is the change of control. 

David Strom said 2007 is they year of the death of the wiki.  This drew laughter from the audience since Jen McClure, the moderator, was using the overhead projector to update the conference wiki.  The audience had mixed views on this. 

Technorati tags: NewCommForum, New Communications Forum, Steve Crescenzo, David Strom, John Cass, JetBlue, Shel Israel

NewCommForum: Making the Case for a Social Media Strategy with Jim Nail of Cymfony

Jim Nail highlighted research data that shows that consumers trust each other most -- even if they are strangers to one another.  He spotlighted how technology amplifies consumer voices by allowing messages to spread more quickly and easily.

Blogs in particular are an obvious driver.  The fact he finds most interesting is that the "authoritative blogs" (as tracked by Technorati) are more than any other media:

• 30,488 blogs with high or very high authority
• 13,000 radio stations
• 9,000 TV stations
• 17,000 magazines

Demographic data he shared from Pew suggests that bloggers are

• more male (slightly)
• younger
• more educated
• higher income

He describes social media creators then as "demographically appealing."  But it isn't just about blogs, YouTube/video, MySpace/social networking, and Wikipedia all represent important trends in the social media space.

Consumers use online content to decide what products to buy, where and how to travel, what cars to drive, etc.  Journalists use blogs to get story ideas.

He says that eBay beats Wal-Mart online because of the social component (I'm not sure I agree, I think there is more to it than that).  Warner Brothers attributes $100M in revenue to a single "Mommy podcast." (I hadn't heard that stat before but it sounds compelling.)

Jim walked through examples of specific cases of consumer discussion on products, including Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD.

(As an aside, Jim had a number of opportunities to go into a pitch for Cymfony as a result of audience questions, and he resolutely avoided doing so.  Kudos for that!)

UPDATE: Sharon Barclay has a detailed criticism of Jim's presentation.

Technorati tags: NewCommForum, New Communications Forum, Jim Nail, Cymfony, TNS Media Intelligence

NewCommForum: How Web 2.0 is Revolutionizing Mainstream Media with Paul Gillin

This session opened with tape of the infamous "AOL cancellation call" where a consumer was trapped on the phone by an AOL employee who kept trying to talk him out of canceling his account.  Paul Gillin talked about how the story started in the blogopshere and eventually made it on to the Today show and other traditional media.

The "new influencers" are changing the face of the media.  Examples included

• Philipp Lenssen of Google Blogoscoped
• Mike Arrington of TechCrunch
• Drew Curtis of Fark.com
• Paige Heninger & Gretchen Vogelzang of MommyCast
• Craig Newmark of Craigslist.com ("this guy is single-handedly taking down the U.S. newspaper industry" according to Gillin)

These individuals achieve Paul also talked about the changing nature of media where sites like Digg get more traffic than the New York Times.  How Craigslist took away $50M in business last year from Bay Area newspapers alone.  Changing demographics mean even more change for the media. 

He addressed patterns of influence and how the Internet is a great experiment in self-organization/self-governance.  And it's working. 

The traditional media must adapt to this new world, advises Gillin.  Existing models are unsustainable.  He claims within a decade or so major metro newspapers will fall apart, with the exception of the big boys (NYT, WSJ, etc.).  "Social media will be the straw that breaks the camel's back" when it comes to newspapers.  Not more than 5 newspapers will survive, but a handful of community newspapers (weeklies) will survive with new business models.  Small metro dailies have no future.

New journalism focuses on outsourcing -- outsourcing of technology and content.  "The entire staff of Digg could be hit by a bus and the site would keep running and traffic wouldn't be affected."

Getting mainstream media to accept comments, link out to other news sources, etc. is important.  Media must reduce overhead and change their models.

Technorati tags: NewCommForum, New Communications Forum, Paul Gillin

NewCommForum: Opening Remarks by Cluetrain Author David Weinberger

The New Communications Forum opened with a packed main hall ready to listen to David Weinberger speaking about social media.

Unfortunately, we were first subjected to a direct sales pitch for Conduit, one of the two conference sponsors.  Starting off the main conference sessions with this PowerPoint presentation hit all the wrong notes.  Now, I am not familiar with the company or its product, and it may well be outstanding.  But the conference organizers should not have started like this.

As the CEO of a company that has sponsored -- and will continue to sponsor -- conferences, I can only hope that we would never succomb to the urge to deliver such a pitch ourselves.  I don't mind sponsors participating in conferences, but they should add value, not merely pitch from the podium.

Fortunately, after the sales pitch concluded, we moved in to the main presentation.

He described his talk as "Life After Broadcast: Conversations, Blogs, Wikipedia, and the New Authority."  He focused a lot on the changing nature of authority and the openness of the World Wide Web.  He described it as a "permission-free zone."  He asserted that companies selectively release information to control customers -- he called it "marketing" and said it is rooted in fear.

The walls have been torn down, however, by the Internet.  And now "marketing becomes war."  Instead, companies must engage in conversations with people.  It should not be a corporate monologue.

All in all it was a high energy, entertaining opening to the conference (though it did run considerably over time). 

UPDATE: Paul Gillin offers an excellent and much more detailed summary of these remarks.  Shel Israel does, too, and check out the comments for an exchange with Amanda Chapel (Strumpette) -- it shows why I love Shel!  Finally, read one more post from Joseph Thornley and you will feel like you attended yourself.

Technorati tags: David Weinberger, Cluetrain Manifesto, NewCommForum, New Communications Form

NewCommForum: Podcasting 101 with Shel Holtz

These are my real-time notes and reaction for this 3 hour seminar on podcasting as part of the pre-conference agenda for the New Communications Forum.  Shel Holtz of For Immediate Release (FIR) presented.  His partner in that podcast, Neville Hobson, had been scheduled to attend but was unable to do so.

• Podcasts most successful when there is engagement with listeners.  A two-way street not a one-way street.
• There are lots of choices for subscribing to podcasts.  It depends on whether you are on a PC or Mac and whether you want more or less control over managing your subscriptions.  iTunes remains the most popular solution.  As subscription gets easier, listenership is likely to increase.
• Digital Flotsam is one of Shel's favorite podcasts even though it doesn't come out on a regular schedule.
• Podcasting began in August 2004 when RSS enclosures were made possible, in part by Dave Winer.  At the same time, Adam Curry came up with podcatcher software.
• There are more podcasts than radio stations in the world (45,000 - 60,000)
• 1.6 million podcast subscribers at FeedBurner.  Average is about 36 subscribers per show.
• 10 million total current listeners (estimated by eMarketing).
• Major directories include Yahoo Podcasts, iTunes, and PodcastAlley
• Podcasting News is a good info site
• Shel's FIR averages 1200 downloads per show, most are Director/VP level or above with budgets of $1M or more that they manage
• FIR also distributed by TalentZoo
• Very few complaints about the FIR show at an hour in length; there were complaints when it went over an hour.
• Quality niche audience is key to FIR success
• Shel and Neville use libsyn.com to host their podcast files.
• Grape Radio is a good wine podcast.
• Podcasts create buzz, reach niche audiences that might otherwise be too difficult to reach, creates an aura of thought leadership, and is an easy extension to what many people already do in their jobs.
• Podcasts don't need to be permanent, plenty of good 5-10 episode podcasts are created around product launches, movie releases, road shows, event promotion, etc.
• Internal communications podcasts can be very useful in engaging employees
• Charlene Li has an excellent template for calculating the ROI of blogging and it can be used to help calculate same for podcasting
• very low barriers to entry
• Shel referenced his 10 Rules for Business Podcasting
• #1 downloaded podcast (This Week in Tech) averages 1 hour, 15 minutes, so length doesn't dictate popularity
• FIR web site lists about 12 related podcasts they like
• Don't sell on a podcast
• Shel has to be a good guy because he likes single malt Scotch
• Gear need not be expensive
• Shel has expensive-ish gear because it is now an official hobby for him
• Some of Shel's gear includes: Adobe Audition, Levelator from Gigavox, Marantz PMD 660, M Audio MicroTrac 2496, a mixer, a compression mic, a pop filter
• Shel has a tutorial on how to use "mix minus" to record Skype calls cleanly (available here)
• Shel says he is going to put together a blooper track from FIR someday and it will be all Neville
• Post-production need not be extensive, but Shel believes in cleaning up some of the errors and such; others believe it should be completely as recorded
• ID3 tags are critical to ensure proper display of information in your iPod or MP3 player (title, album, etc.)
• Get listed in podcast directories.  "You're nuts if you don't get listed in iTunes!"
• Podcasts fit in as part of the "new media ecosystem" which includes RSS, blogs, wikis, vlogs/vidcasts, tagging/social bookmarking, Second Life, SMS, etc.
• It is very important to follow legal guidelines for podcast music if you use any.  Make sure it is podsafe music not RIAA-protected music
• At the end of the presentation, a quick podcast was created by interviewing audience members about how they use their cell phones.  Shel then quickly edited and uploaded it.  It will be available online later tonight. 

Technorati tags: Podcasting 101, NewCommForum, New Communications Forum, Shel Holtz, podcasting, Neville Hobson, For Immediate Release, podcasting statistics, how to podcast

New Communications Forum Next Week

A reminder that the New Communications Forum is coming up next week in Las Vegas.  It isn't too late to register.  The list of speakers, panelists, and attendees is impressive.  I will be there and look forward to the discussions.

If any readers will be at the event and would like to get together for a cup of coffee, a drink, dinner, or the like, just drop me a line.

I plan to blog the event, just as I have done with Demo conferences in the past, so if you can't make it there, you can at least get some of the flavor by reading this space next Thursday and Friday.

Technorati tags: New Communications Form, SNCR, Society for New Communications Research

Recap of PRSA Boston Social Media Event

Mark McClennan, President of PRSA Boston, and CustomScoop's own Sarah Wurrey have both written good write-ups of the PRSA Boston social media event that took place on Monday night.  As I noted before, I was unable to attend because I am out of town for another commitment, but after reading these two posts I wish I had been there.  From what I understand it was a packed event -- I know more folks from CustomScoop wanted to go but were wait-listed since the event sold out. 

It's great to see strong interest in the social media area from PR pros in the Boston area.  I look forward to future events like this from Mark's group.